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Freddie Roach got around to watching the May 5 Floyd Mayweather-Miguel Cotto fight last night. You'll forgive Dedham Freddie for the delay; he has an excuse, in that he's been knee deep in getting Amir Khan ready for the Lamont Peterson rematch, which was going to happen this Saturday, before the tussle was scotched because Peterson submitted a dirty sample. Plus, he's been working with Manny Pacquiao to get the Congressman ready for a stiff test on June 9, against Tim Bradley. So ... was Freddie impressed with Mayweather? Fans seemed to be; they liked that "Money" gave them their money's worth, forgoing dancing and defense, and instead indulging in more trading than we've been accustomed to.

"Floyd's legs are a little shot," Freddie told ESPN New York. "He can't move like he used to, he's a lot more hittable. He used to run, he can't run anymore. So Pacquiao will catch him."

Trainer of the moment Freddie Roach shares some wisdom on a subject he knows intimately. The former pro pug, who to be frank ate a couple along the way, because he was basically fearless, tells in this video how to take a punch, to the head and body. Our man Peter Quillin plays his capable assistant. Check out it out here.

Informed that It trainer Freddie Roach thinks his guy Vycheslav Senchenko, the WBA welterweight champ, "has a faster jab than Paulie Malignaggi," you could practically see the gaping yawn on the Bensonhurst-bred boxer's face.

"If he says so," said the 30-4 boxer, living in LA but training in NYC in Italy for his April 29 title shot in the Ukraine against the hometowner Senchenko (32-0; . "In a couple weeks I got a trick for them. Good things come to those who wait, so they only got two weeks left to wait."

Roach also said that the US fighter can and will get a fair shake in the Ukraine. Asked about that, Paulie said, "I'm not worried about fairness and Freddie is a great trainer but he can't fight for Senchenko." Please note, if you are a tad surprised by Malignaggi's even-tempered response, that he trains with Eric Brown out of Roach's Wild Card Gym. I'm not saying that this affects how he speaks about Dedham Freddie, but if it did, that would make sense...

Here's Roach's fuller take on the bout and his guy's chances.

"Senchenko is a very, very good boxer with good technique," Roach said. "He has good height and a good punch. He had a great amateur background. The Ukraine has the No. 1 program in the world this year. It has a very good program and Senchenko is very well schooled. His jab is his best weapon and I think that will be the difference in this fight. He has a faster jab than Malignaggi and it should control the fight.

"I think Senchenko's boxing ability will enable him to out-score Paulie to win a decision. Paulie is very game. He'll bring the fight and make it exciting. Going to the Ukraine is not like going into hostile territory. The promoter (Yuri Ruban, Union Boxing) over there is very fair. One time I had a fighter from there - I thought he won - but he lost a decision at home. There will be neutral judges and the winner will be the real winner."

FYI Malignaggi is today training in Milan. He got there a few days ago, and reports that good sparring is being flown in from Poland and England.

In the last few months, Paulie Malignaggi has gone above and beyond his expected duties and put on a promoter's hat. He's tried to lure Marcos Maidana, Erik Morales and last week Robert Guerrero into a battle. He struck out, though not for lack of ingenuity or pluck. Guerrero has been calling out Floyd Mayweather and others for a couple of months and when someone stepped up to his challenge, he disappeared.

Malignaggi, age 31, knows his time as an active fighter is shrinking, so he basically conceded to the writing on the wall and will take a fight with the WBA welterweight champion, Ukrainian Viacheslav Senchenko. Paulie (30-4 with 6 KOs) told ESPN New York that contract particulars are close to being finalized between Team Senchenko and Paulie's promoter, Golden Boy.

The bout pitting the ex-junior welter from Bensonhurst and the relative unknown and untested Senchenko (age 34; 32-0 with 21 KOs) would likely unfold April 29 in Donetsk, Ukraine. "It feels good to be fighting for a title again," Paulie said. "I will make the most of the opportunity and I look forward to winning the title and bringing it home to defend in Brooklyn's Barclays Center in the fall."

Malignaggi knows the judges could be wearing pro-Senchenko glasses on fight night but said he is optimistic he can win a decision. "I will try to focus on things I can control rather than things I cannot," he said.

Senchenko has been working with Freddie Roach lately but Malignaggi sees him as "still basic nonetheless" though "distinctly sharper" since he hooked up with Freddie. Malignaggi is based in L.A. now and works out at Roach's Hollywood gym with trainer Eric Brown. The boxer said it would be a sweet win to get the title and hold it aloft in Brooklyn. "I used to get asked, 'Yo Paulie when's your next fight?" Now it's, 'Yo Paulie, you still fighting?' So imagine how good it would feel if I could come home with a world championship and defend it in Brooklyn?"

On Sunday afternoon, I busted Marco Antonio Rubio's chops for insinuating that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. used an illegal PED or PEDs before his unanimous decision title-defense win in San Antonio Saturday night.

I stand by that piece, because Rubio made that implication in a Boxing Channel interview based on his feeling that Chavez was stronger than he thought he would be and had more stamina than the loser thought he should have. However ... it now emerges -- in stories that ran on Boxing Scene and Yahoo! -- that Chavez apparently didn't provide a customary post-bout urine sample, and Team Rubio claims that he fled the arena to avoid providing it. If Junior did in fact skip out, that info, combined with the fact that he tested positive for a banned diuretic following his November 2009 fight with Troy Rowland in Las Vegas, makes Rubio's sour grapes a bit less sour. There would be a track record at that point, and even though I maintain that a using a diuretic to aid weight loss isn't in the league of an EPO, Rubio's allegation becomes more understandable. However, as Twitter followers Ron Buckner and EdwinAA kindly noted, the diuretic furosemide is sometimes used by dopers as a masking agent to avoid detection of banned substances. So perhaps Junior wasn't just seeking a shortcut to make weight back in 2009.

We need to know the specific postfight circumstances. Did the Texas commission drop the ball in not having a rep with a cup handy in Chavez's dressing room? I texted Freddie Roach, Junior's trainer, to ask for clarification, and I'll share that if and when I hear back.

Sergio Martinez fans will certainly want this mystery cleared up. They want Junior to put his WBC middleweight crown on the line against Sergio after the latter takes care of his business on March 17 at the Madison Square Garden Theater, against Matthew Macklin, and they'd like assurances that the 25-year-old Junior is on a level playing field with Martinez, 36, if that fight comes to fruition. That's a big, fat "if" in the minds of many fans, who think Junior and his promoter, Bob Arum, would rather he battle ultra-faded Antonio Margarito than risk his title against a less-faded Martinez.

It would be premature to tag Chris Algieri, a Long Island-based boxer who headlines at the Paramount Theatre in Huntington on Long Island on Saturday night against Curtis Smith, "doc."

Algieri (12-0 with 6 KOs; age 27), who obtained a health and sciences undergrad degree from Stonybrook in 2007 and a Masters from NY Tech in nutrition in 2010, is definitely going to apply to med schools.

But first the Huntington resident wants to take care of some other business; namely, he wants to win a world title. He's already done it in the realm of kickboxing. Algieri won kickboxing crowns at age and 23, and then retired from that sport. "I did everything I had to do," he told me on a phoner, explaining his path to this point, and plans for the future. "I thought I might as well chase another dream. I think I will be world champion in boxing, I think I have what it takes. I'm focused on a title shot in the next two years. I wish to enter med school post boxing career. I don't want to do it currently, I don't even think it's possible. There are not enough hours in the day."

Some of those hours are taken up doing some courses needed for med school, like organic chem, which he does at Touro College. The ring is helpful in decompressing from that intense brain workout. "Boxing gives my brain a rest," he said. "It is definitely a relief to go to the gym, go to something I know. It's kind of a haven for me."

Will the ring be a haven for fellow junior welterweight Smith, a southpaw who brings a 10-5 record with five KOs with him from Georgia?

"I don't know too much about him," Algieri said. "I know he is from the south, from Georgia. He's never been stopped so I'm assuming he's a tough guy. He has a pretty good KO percentage, so I expect a tough, strong guy. I'm not much into watching tape, it's all about rhythm, and you can't judge rhythm from watching tape."

I'm guessing fans should get their money's worth on the main event. Algieri's mindset is to give the people what they want. "I like to see finishes, I do it for me," he said of his preference for KOs. "Like Freddie Roach says, every fight should end in a KO. Yes, it is more dangerous to look for a KO. But I'd like to end every fight inside the distance. It's the hurt business, you got to go in looking to hurt the other guy."

Paging Curtis Smith to the Huntington Theatre, paging Mr. Smith...

Advance tickets, priced at $35, $50 and $100 can be purchased by calling Star Boxing at (718) 823-2000, or by visiting the Star Boxing website, www.StarBoxing.com. Tickets may also be purchased through Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com, Phone 1-800-745-3000) and The Paramount Theater Box Office by calling (631) 673-7300.

The Paramount Theater is located at 370 New York Avenue, Huntington, New York, 11743. For directions and more information, please visit their website at www.paramountny.com.

NYFightBlog told you on Dec. 23 that Sergio Martinez has grown a salty side. Little did we know when he was in NYC blasting Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum and Freddie Roach and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. that he was just getting started. In Argentina today, Martinez announced that he was tired of the WBC's antics, that he would not wear their ceremonial "diamond" belt for his March 17 fight against Matthew Macklin in NYC and furthermore, he was sick of HBO's treatment toward him, and was dumping them.

This guy should be sponsored by Morton.

Martinez said he believes that the WBC should live up to their word, and that they should demand Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, who now holds the WBC middleweight title, face off with Martinez ASAP, because Martinez gave up the strap this summer when he refused to fight the WBC No.1 contender, Sebastian Zbik. He did so because HBO didn't want to show Martinez-Zbik, and thus, there was no substantial financial incentive for him to fight Zbik. The WBC had Chavez fight Zbik for the title, as they dubbed Martinez "champion emeritus," Chavez beat Zbik, and now we are where we are.

At his holiday party last week, Martinez' promoter Lou DiBella fumed, as he pointed out that no representative from HBO, which considers Martinez one of their top showcase fighters, attended the bash to pay respect to the boxer.

HBO was going to show the March 17 Martinez fight. It is not clear who will televise the scrap now. NYFightBlog reached out the DiBella, and Martinez advisor Sampson Lewkowicz for clarification.

He is starting to get a bit more salty. The impatience is starting to get to him. Not in a bad way I don't think. But nice guy Sergio Martinez is getting an edge, because he's had it. For too long now, he's been a guy who has gone after the best, brightest, biggest names in the game. He fought Paul Williams, then Kelly Pavlik, then Paul Williams again, in 2009-2010. And he believes that some of the very best, brightest and biggest names in the game haven't been as focused on doing the same. Who is the Argentine referring to? Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Miguel Cotto are in his top four, a murderers row of "duckers."

Tuesday, Martinez was in NYC chatting with fightwriters, and he went, if not ballistic, then semi-ballistic. For him. He's a smooth operator, a guy who looks like his blood pressure never goes above 110-70. It might have hit 111-71 on Tuesday, when he laced into the "duckers," and the people he believes aid and abet them.

Why, he was asked, aren't these top dogs demanding of their promoters, who understandably, being shrewd businessmen who want to protect their assets, sometimes put them in with a softer touch when the harder foe is the fight the fans want?

"They don't want the toughest fights," Martinez said, "they want the easiest."

He aimed the barbs at Chavez Jr first.

"There's no other way to contact him, I can't just go to his house," he said. "I've said a thousand times in the past I want a fight with him or for him to give me my belt back."

Martinez really wants a crack at proving he is the best pound for pounder in the world. Some say he is, some say the 36 year-old has lost some luster after fighting two guys not well known in the States, Sergei Dzinziruk and Darren Barker, and looking at times good, not great. He'd love to lure Pacquiao into a tangle, and talked a little trash to maybe light a fire under the Congressman.

"What Bob Arum and Freddie Roach are selling is a lie," Martinez said. "Roach been saying Pacquiao is number one pound for pound. How long has it been since he's fought someone in the top ten pound for pound? When he fought Marquez think about how the three fights went. Roach and Arum, a bunch of liars. For Roach, talk is cheap. Tell Roach to make a fight with Chavez, I'll kick his ass in the ring." Now, while he's saying this stuff, Sergio is as composed as when he's ordering the ribeye and a side of asparagus. But this is incendiary stuff, for him. "Pacquiao is basically a puppet for Roach and Top Rank," he said.

Martinez laid claim to the No. 2 P4P spot behind Floyd Mayweather. He says that when a Martinez-Pacman bout was discussed, it was made clear to him that Team Pacquiao would want him to fight at 147, and weigh no more than 150 on fightnight. Team Martinez said they'd do 150, but 147, to me, is not possible, so it looks like we can scratch that one off the list, conclusively.

What about Miguel Cotto? That to me is a mouth-watering fight, especially after Cotto looked like a million bucks in his revenge match against that crooked, jerky jockey, Tony Margarito.

"Cotto must be deaf, everything I say, he doesn't hear or doesn't want to hear. I say it a million times he doesn't hear, every time Cotto comes up with an excuse, 'I don't want it, people don't want it,' he doesn't like the way I dress or whatever else."

We may be getting more of this semi-salty Sergio; he sounds like he's not considering his exit from the game until he lures Mayweather or some of the Top Rank gang, Pacman, Cotto, Chavez or Cotto, into tussles: "I'm not going to stop fighting til I'm the top pound for pound and I get my belt back."

He sounded like he was ordering a slice of cheesecake when he said that, but really, folks, this is a new, saltier side of Sergio, and I like it. Readers write in to TSS and bemoan the good old days, when more fighters hunted people above them on the food chain, or at the same level, and made certain fights were booked so they could prove their supremacy. Fair to say this sport could use some more of that today, fighters showing off their grapefruits more and telling the dealmakers that they want only the most marquee scraps. I do believe I have hit upon my New Year's co-resolution, to go along with that diet revamp...I will lobby harder for the pound for pound aces and the best and brightest to seek only the sternest tests. It is time the aces of this era show the golden boys of the past that the portion of their legacy which means most to them is wins over future Hall of Famers, not the size of their bank accounts and car collections.

He has tangled with Miguel Cotto in Madison Square Garden, and made the Puerto Rican work his tail off to win a UD12. But Paulie Malignaggi, the Bensonhurst hitter who is now living in L.A., isn't holding that 2006 loss against his conqueror.

"It's tough to beat Cotto in the Garden," he said, referring to the fact that 90 percent of the fans will be rooting for Cotto. "It's a tough crowd, and a tough fight. I like Cotto by unanimous decision."

His manager, Anthony Catanzaro, also went with Cotto.

"Emotionally, I think with the rest of everyone in world I'm going with Cotto. There's history there with Paulie and Jose Miguel Cotto, besides being justice, he's the all around better fighter.

"Yes, Margarito is bigger. Yes, it's a pro-Puerto Rican crowd in MSG rooting for Miguel. Hopefully the better man on that night is Miguel, in a good fight. If it's a late-round knockout, I'm not going to complain. I think Top Rank put him in the lion's den in the Garden. If he's the Miguel Cotto we think he is still, he will really put a beating on Tony."

Middleweight contender Matthew Macklin, an Irishman living in Manhattan, is also tipping toward Cotto.

"I think Miguel wins the fight," he said. "In the first one, the first five or six rounds he boxed really well. Then he took a lot of flak for quitting. That makes more sense coming out about the plaster. He got his heart broken, he quit, but there were other reasons for that.

"I don't think he'll quit in this one. I think he'll be able to sustain what he did in the first five or six and be able to box his head off. I think Margarito has gone downhill since that fight and the beating he got from Pacquiao. He could be damaged goods."

The trainer for Carl Froch, who meets Andre Ward in A,C, on Dec. 17, is another one leaning to Cotto.

"My gut instinct goes Cotto," said ex-boxer Robert McCracken. "He's been boxing more. He'll train more diligently, be fierce in preparing."

I shared my thought, that my gut tells me that the right eye of Margarito, which has been operated on three times in six months, will prove problematic for him. McCracken said he didn't think so, that fighters of this ilk are "fighting machines." I stand by my inkling.

McCracken explained to me why time off hurts a boxer. I think Margarito's forced hiatus and time off due to injury will affect him.

"Timing is a problem. You feel the punches more, the training more. The speed and timing is not quite what it was. That's what happens to boxers unless you live in gym day in and day like Floyd does. I think it'll be very tough on the night for a few round for Cotto, then he will land the better shots and he'll pull away."

Readers, please feel free to leave your predictions.

Fight fans have been letting Bob Arum know that the time is now, that they want him to help make the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight happen.

Arum, at a Miguel Cotto open media workout at Trinity gym in downtown NYC on Tuesday, said he's trying to give the fans what they want. He's meeting with investor groups to pull off a Super Bowl-type extravaganza, he said. Just don't even bother hoping that bout could land, if it happens, in NYC, at MSG.

"No. Never, ever happen," Arum said.

The promoter said Pacquiao and Mayweather would have to pay a 14 percent independent contractor tax to the state. In Nevada or Texas, that tax wouldn't apply. Antonio Margarito can get a credit for the tax on his California return, and Cotto can do the same in Puerto Rico. Why, Arum said, would they take that hit on their purse if they don't have to?

"We have different investor groups approaching us, want to do the fight and we have time to sort it out. I think our first choice is to do Mayweather and our second choice is [Juan Manuel] Marquez," he said.

He also touched on a recent story in which Pacquiao's strength and conditioning coach, Alex Ariza, blasted the promoter for being "greedy" and accused him of trying to steer clients away from the coach. Arum shrugged off the slams.

"It was ridiculous," Arum said. "Ariza isn't the brightest bulb on the block. He has nothing to say about anything. I just called Freddie Roach up and told Freddie to shut him up. Freddie and I are aligned on our thinking."

Arum said he was taking meetings with HBO and Showtime today, and discussing what's next for Top Rank stable fighters Nonito Donaire, Brandon Rios, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Mike Jones and Tim Bradley.